Open letter from British SWP: Left must unite to create an alternative

Lenin’s Tomb reprints the open letter from the British Socialist Worker’s Party. As always, the comments are, um, lively, and thoughtful too.

Labour’s vote collapsed to a historic low in last week’s elections as the right made gains. The Tories under David Cameron are now set to win the next general election.

The British National Party (BNP) secured two seats in the European parliament. Never before have fascists achieved such a success in Britain.

The term “fascists” gets misused in the US. But not here. The BNP are indeed genuine fascists.

The result has sent a shockwave across the labour and anti-fascist movements, and the left.

The meltdown of the Labour vote and the civil war engulfing the party poses a question – where do we go from here?
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One simple step would be to convene a conference of all those committed to presenting candidates representing working class interests at the next election.

The SWP is prepared to help initiate such a gathering and to commit its forces to such a project.

We look forward to your response.

That the British SWP – who are not always known for playing well with others – released this open letter saying we all need to work together and find answers now, well, this is a huge step forward, certainly for the SWP, hopefully for the British Left too.

NOBODY wants an anti-BNP movement that is led by – or frankly, that even involves – the Socialist Workers Party. This is a political cult which has only two ideas about opposing fascism: organising pop concerts headlined by heroin addicts, and throwing eggs.